LGBT International Newsworthy: 2009

Monday, March 2, 2009

Beijing's 'happy couples' launch campaign for same-sex marriages

With her bouquet of roses and fluffy white dress, Han Xincheng looked the epitome of the glamorous modern Chinese bride. But, although her parents had been pressing her to marry, the photographs were not what they might have expected: she is gazing adoringly at another woman, surrounded by onlookers.

The series of "wedding pictures" staged by lesbians and gay men in the heart of Beijing might not raise eyebrows any longer in most western countries, but they are evidence that attitudes are finally changing in a country where gay sex was illegal until 1997 and homosexuality classified as a mental illness until four years later.

Poland's GLBT Media Owners Meet To Discuss Working Together (LMGTS: LetMeGetThiStraight)

Post found on Topix

At the invitation of Slawka Starost an unprecedented event in the history of Polish media took place on 22 February 2007 in Warsaw. As the saying goes, nothing unites bitter foes like a common enemy. This inckudes external and internal foces. GayLife has been threatened with a lawsuit by a gay association because of its reporting in mismangement of donated funds. Thus this meeting could be a salvo fired across the bows of certain assocaitions and individuals who are not working for the common good of the Polish GLBT - Bravo.

Read more at www.letmegetthisstraight.com

Scottish lesbian couple win right to fertility treatment after legal threat

Post found on Topix

Two lesbians have won the right to IVF treatment to help them have a baby after threatening to sue health chiefs. They used controversial new equality laws to launch their case in Scotland's highest civil court yesterday, backed by a government watchdog which believes they suffered 'indirect discrimination'.

Until now, the National Health Service has offered IVF treatment only when a couple cannot conceive because one partner is infertile. But this, the women said, constitutes 'indirect discrimination' against gay couples who cannot conceive naturally.

Read more at www.proudparenting.com

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

I'm gay myself -- but even I was shocked by this new Irish survey

Post found on Gay News Blog

It's rotten being a teenager -- and a report released this week found that those turbulent years can be even tougher in this country if you happen to be gay.

Indeed, a shocking level of general harassment and discrimination emerged from the detailed survey of 1,110 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people aged between 14 and 73, with some 40pc of all respondents saying they had been threatened with physical violence and 25pc reporting being punched, kicked or beaten at some point.

Robert Biedron Resigns As president or is Pushed from Campaign Against Homophobia

Post found on Gay News Blog

In a strange but not unexpected course of events today Robert Biedron announced and posted his resignation on his blog from “Campaign Against Homophobia” amidst swirling controversy and allegations of wrongdoings. Biedron served as president of “Campaign Against Homophobia” for seven years. The NGO (nongovernmental) agency known in Poland by the acronym “KPH” was established in 2001 by Biedron.

Read more at www.letmegetthistraight.com

Latido unveils first gay Basque film

Post found on Gay News Blog

Sabino Arana, the hawkish first ideologue of Basque nationalism, must be spinning in his grave.

Arana exalted died-in-the-wool Catholicism and Basque racial purity. A century after his death, the Berlinale Panorama welcomes “Ander,” billed by sales company Latido as the first-ever gay Basque-language movie.

What’s more, it’s set in the Arratia Valley in Biscay, an idyllic spot, where, traditionally, real men are farmers, and farmers real men.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Gay British Music Teacher Brutally Murdered in Northern Thailand

Post found on Towleroad

David Lyall Crisp, a 56-year-old gay British music teacher was found dead in his apartment in the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai today.

The Daily Mail reports:

"'He had beaten about the head with a teak mug. His throat had also been cut with a six inch knife and the murderer tried to finish the act off by smothering him in a cloth which covered his piano,' said Police Colonel Pattipol Serichainchana David Crisp was a prominent member of the Chiang Mai expatriate community. He drove a BMW 5 series, and owned a classic Citroen and was a member of the Classic Cars of Lanna (the old northern kingdom of Thailand) Club. He was also director of a choral society known as the 'Spirit House' singers and earned a living from writing and directing music and teaching the piano. But he was also reportedly frequented gay bars for which the northern capital is famous and according to his housekeeper Prinjai Saedin, 73: 'He often brought young men home, so I knew he was gay. But I don't think he would ever harm anyone'. Two young men whom he had brought from a gay bay to live at the back of his house have since disappeared, possibly fearing they would be blamed. But on January 20th he had brought home a young man who has not been seen since."

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Same-sex marriage supporters to petition Scottish Parliament

Post found on Gay News Blog

A group of gay rights advocates has launched a petition to the Scottish Parliament calling for a change in the law to allow two people of the same sex to get married.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Network says there is a "ban" on same-sex marriage and that the High Court and the UK Government "have both denied gay couples full equality."

UK Police Charge 11 for Homophobic Abuse at Football Game

Post found on Towleroad

After police released 16 photographs of Tottenham Hotspur fans from a match against Portsmouth last month, eleven were arrested, five are still being sought, and those arrested were charged today, according to the Guardian:

"The group, which includes two 15-year-olds and a 13-year-old, are alleged to have subjected the former England player to abuse during the club's 2-0 home win against Spurs at Fratton Park in September...A police spokeswoman said of the accused: 'They were charged with indecent chanting at a football match using words which were essentially swearwords. They weren't appropriate to be used at all, especially where there were children and we received a number of complaints.'"

Read more at Towleroad

KPH-Campaign Against Homophibia A Polish NGO attacks Polish gays

Post found on Topix

The Polish gay community suffrage against homophobia within the ultraconservative Roman Catholic country is well documented in worldwide media. The battles the gay activist endured made headlines among fellow European Union member states unleashing condemnation of Polish government and citizens public visceral displays of intolerance. Those type headlines have dissipated since 2007 under the new socially conservative but tolerant and pragmatic PO (Civil Platform) government of Prime Minster Donald Tusk.

Read more at Topix

Harsh Sentences for Homosexuality in Senegal

Post found in Gay News Blog

DAKAR, Senegal — Nine men were handed unusually harsh sentences of eight years in prison after being tried on charges of conspiracy and "unnatural acts," a term used to criminalize homosexuality, according to their lawyers and gay rights groups here.

The men were arrested on December 19 at the home of Diadji Diouf, a prominent gay activist who works with AIDS organizations to prevent the spread of the disease in the largely clandestine gay community in Senegal, according to Joel Nana, a program associate for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Laws against gay sex are "like apartheid" says UN human rights chief

Post found on PinkNews.co.uk

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned the continued criminalisation of homosexual sex across the world.

Mrs Navanethem Pillay, a South African, was addressing at a high level meeting on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity at the UN in New York last month.

She was the first woman to start a law practice in her home province of Natal in 1967 and acted as a defense attorney for anti-apartheid activists.

LGBT International Newsworthy